原標題:
五、《三節草》 60’ 1997年
瀘沽湖畔70歲的老婦肖淑明,身世曲折傳奇。
本世紀初,肖淑明出生於四川成都一個國民黨中校軍官家庭。1941年,隨父遷往雅安,入雅安縣立中學女子班學習。兩年後,一個32歲的男人來到雅安,從此改變了她的命運。
這個男人叫喇寶成,是摩梭人土司,擁有瀘沽湖一帶36個火頭,48村百姓。為鎮撫山民,當時的西康省主席劉文輝召喇寶成到雅安,授槍加勳。春風得意的喇寶成在辦完公務之後,欲娶一位才貌雙全的漢族女子為他打理山寨。經人介紹,喇寶成見到了初二學生肖淑明。一見之下,喇寶成大為傾心,而肖淑明對身著黃呢軍服的喇寶成也愛慕有加。於是張燈結綵,喜結良緣,在當時的西康省上流社會傳為佳話。肖淑明時年16歲。
婚後三天,肖淑明隨喇寶成離開雅安,翻山越嶺兩個月來到瀘沽湖。這一去就是54年。
三節草劇照
喇寶成是土司,是必須結婚的。本來他已有一名摩梭人夫人,肖淑明去了以後,也只能算是二房。二房就二房吧,肖淑明也不以為意。然而,已有兩房夫人的喇寶成卻依然要出去“走”,出去“翻木騾子”,惹得肖淑明很是生氣,好在日子長了也就看慣了。只要不帶回家來,睜一隻眼,閉一隻眼,罷了。瀘沽湖是一個美麗的高原湖泊,位於中國西部橫斷山脈南麓的崇山峻嶺之中。湖的兩岸,居住著約5萬名摩梭人。他們世世代代實行男不婚、女不嫁的走婚制,是碩果僅存的母系社會。
瀘沽湖是美麗的,而青春更美麗。年輕的肖淑明愛上了騎馬打槍。那時候她經常白衣紅裙,黑馬雙槍,縱情馳騁于瀘沽湖畔的山水之間。每逢夜晚,肖淑明一邊彈著風琴,一邊輕聲吟唱。月白風輕,湖水漾漾。
然而總是想家。摩梭話肖淑明聽不懂,吃的東西也不習慣。儘管喇寶成溫言有加,但總是撫不去那越來越濃的鄉愁。直到今天,肖淑明最愛唱的歌還是《松花江上》:哪年哪月才能回到我那可愛的故鄉……
在學校學到的東西,也撩撥得她寢食難安。經與喇寶成商量,肖淑明打算辦一所學校,教當地摩梭人的小孩子唸書。然而,現實是嚴峻的,學校還沒辦起來,自己卻生下了兩雙兒女。
日子過得很快,解放軍説來就來。審時度勢之後,喇寶成投靠了解放軍,和肖淑明一起幫著解放軍平叛。後來,喇寶成當上了當地的區長,進而鹽源縣政協副主席、四川省民委參事。1976年,死在鹽源縣醫院。
隨著喇寶成政治命運的沉浮,肖淑明也經歷了由貴族到幹部夫人再到瀘沽湖鎮多啥村阿奴社的普通農民的角色轉換。好在這時候兩兒兩女都已長大,在當地成家立業。幾十年的風風雨雨,肖淑明也完全融入了瀘沽湖摩梭人的生活,平靜地生活在瀘沽湖,生活在摩梭人中間,一直到1996年。
這一年初夏,玉米地剛鋤二遍草,肖淑明家來了一個名叫李安慶的中年人,表示願意資助肖淑明回一趟老家成都。
李安慶是成都一家企業的老總,在得知肖淑明的身世後,基於商業宣傳的需要,專程來瀘沽湖接肖淑明回成都。
肖淑明熱淚長流。屈指算來,她已闊別故土54年……
“肖淑明回成都”這件事,在1996年的成都引起了巨大轟動。今非昔比的成都,肖淑明已完全生疏了。家裏的親人早已相繼去世,只剩下了幾個遠親。變了,一切都變了,修葺一新的望江樓,緩緩流淌的府南河,鱗次櫛比的高樓大廈和春潮般奔涌的人流……在肖淑明眼裏,一切都變了,54年前灰暗的舊城如今變成了一個繁華的大都市。
喧囂過後又是落寞。回到瀘沽湖,肖淑明萌發了一個強烈的念頭:一定要把孫女拉珠送回成都……
Synopsis of SAN JIE CAO
A famous city on the fertile western Sichuan plain, Chengdu is populated by the ethnic majority of China --- the Han nationality --- and has evolved through the vicissitude of history into a highly civilized metropolis, a political, economic and cultural center in Southwest China, and a society dominated by men like most of the civilizations on this planet. In the remote high mountains to the south of Chengdu, however, lies the virgin land of Lugu Lake, the home of the mysterious Moso, an ethic minority in China who seem to have been untouched by the progress of civilization that their Han brothers have achieved. Even today, Moso people stick to their matrilineal institution and to a peculiar custom known as "visitor husband" marriage, a tradition by which a woman is the head of a household and has the free choice of her man whom she invites to visit her at her home for marital intimacy only at night while otherwise the man should live in the home of one of his own female family members. In 1943 Xiao Shuming, a then high school girl in Chengdu, was taken against her will by a Moso headman all the way to the Lugu Lake to be his concubine, only to be able to come back to her hometown after fifty four long years since then, her journey being sponsored by an enterprise in Chengdu. It was during that home-coming of her lifetime when it occurred to her that she should send her granddaughter Lachu back to Chengdu, a more civilized world where she herself was born and grew up as a child.
"Life, it's something that defies any description."
---- Xiao Shuming